Conrad Peclet used to shoot cocaine and heroin into his toes so his parents couldn't see the track marks.

The teen stole their credit cards, forcing his family to press charges and landing him in court-ordered residential treatment.

But Wednesday, a few feet away from Gov. Chris Christie and state Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, the healthy 17-year-old freely shared his story during a ceremonial groundbreaking for a long-awaited $4 million expansion at Daytop, an adolescent treatment facility in Pittsgrove.

Sober after a six-month stay at Daytop, the Manchester Township senior is about to graduate from high school and rehab.

"People's lives are getting saved here today," Peclet said.

Opened in 2005 in a former retirement home for priests, the Salem County facility serves between 30 and 35 adolescents, ages 13 to 18.

The construction project was funded with state money and a $360,000 matching grant from the Salem Health & Wellness Foundation. When it's completed around March 1, Daytop will be able to serve 50 residential patients and add a new outpatient program for teens, said Daytop CEO Jim Curtin.

The long-awaited addition will go up on neighboring property Daytop bought earlier with a $1.2 million grant.

"We had expansion plans back then," Curtin said. "This is ... monumental for our organization to finally get done."

While adult patients can wait nine to 12 months for an open bed, New Jersey teens can get into residential treatment immediately, Curtin said.

About 500 teens go through Daytop's programs each year across the state. Virtually all of the teens in the Pittsgrove facility come from the seven southern counties. When insurance runs out, the facility uses state grants or private funds to keep patients in treatment as long as they need it.

"It's a different reality," Curtin explained. "We have treatment right here in New Jersey."

Before a warm crowd, Christie reiterated his support for addiction treatment.

"As a father, there is nothing more important to me than this," the governor said. "We need to do this, and we need to do it right. We need to do it better across the country than what we're doing."

Christie recalled how for eight years he tried to help a close friend from law school beat an addiction to Percocet. After 12 trips to rehab, Christie said, his friend lost his job, his home, his wife and lost touch with his three daughters.

Two months ago, the 52-year-old was found dead in a West Orange motel with an empty bottle of Percocet and an empty quart of vodka in the room.

"No matter how many times we desperately tried to help him, he continued to lose the struggle against this awful disease," Christie said.

"We can't guarantee good results for everybody. It's not easy and we don't have all the answers, but this building, and the building it will join, is our best hope."

Todd Peclet, Conrad's father, said his son struggled with anxiety from a young age and started experimenting with drugs when he was in eighth grade. The elder Peclet learned he couldn't force his son to take prescription medication or send him to an in-patient program against his will. It took the threat of jail time to get him there.

Today, his son is happy, sober and looking forward to college.

Parents need more information, the 50-year-old said. "I think the system needs to be more transparent."

Indeed, it seems most parents seek help after their children are already young adults and deep into their addictions, explained Kass Foster and Susan Buonomo, founding members of the group Parent-to-Parent. Both women lost sons to addiction and have sought to help other families fighting addiction.

"It would be helpful for parents to increase their knowledge, to know what to look for," said Buonomo, "to catch them at the edge of the cliff and not try to catch them way down at the bottom of the cliff."